Slide fastener chain



9 K. w. UHRIG 3,409,952 I SLIDE FASTENER CHAIN Filed March 21, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR KARL w'lLueLM uHNG Nov. 12, 1968 K. w. UHRIG SLIDE FASTENER CHAIN 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 21, 1966 m r on W KA om Tnn NFL w E V K L R an v KB /ommo 3- 325; owe

Nov. 12, 1968 w, UHR|G 3,409,952

SLIDE FASTENER CHAIN Filed March 21, 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 .QZ'LQK 910161.) 6 7 3 YIIIIIIROIZRQAQLVVDLQZQ1QLO;7

INVENTOR:

KARL WILHELH UHRIG KN KM United States Patent "ice ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A fastener chain-whose stringers each have a woven tape in which a longitudinal'row of openings separated by filling threads is formed by missing warp threads. A continuous row of slide fastener elements consisting of a plastic wire having alternating head and bight portions is attached to the tape by the head portions passing through consecutive openings until the filling threads are received in the bight portions and the heads project from one face of the tape a distance which is not substantially smaller than the narrower of the two tape portions separated by theopenings. An integral burr on each head portion prevents the same from slipping back through the tape.

This invention relates to slide fasteners, and particularly to slide fastener chain in which integrally connected slide fastener elements are secured to a band-shaped carrier, such as woven tape, by engagement of the elements with openings of the carrier. 7

The known slide fasteners of the described type are relatively difficult to make in that they require numerous operations. The portions of the fastener elements which are guided by the lateral rails of a slider duringclosing movement of the fastener are covered by portions of the woven carrier which are subject to rapid wear.

.An object of the invention is the provision of slide fastener chain, or. of stringers which can be prepared in a simpler manner than the corresponding known slide fastener parts, and in which the surfaces of the interlocking elements which cooperate with the slider during opening or closing of the fastener are not obstructed or covcred-by parts of the carrier.

The terms stringer and chain are being employed herein in the manner conventional in this art, a stringer being constituted by a carrier, which may be band-shaped as a woven tape, and a row of fastener elements secured to the carrier and adapted to interlock with the elements of another stringer having matingly shaped fastener elements. When two stringers arelinked by interlocking engagement of their fastener elements, they constitute a chain.

With these and other objects in view, the invention in one of its aspects resides in a slide fastener chain including two stringers. The band-shaped, elongated carrier of each stringer is formed with a longitudinal row of spaced openings between two groups of warp threads which separates a narrow from a wide portion of the carrier. Integrally connected slide fastener elements are received in respective openings, and their portions project therefrom while the connecting bight portions receive the filling threads which separate the openings of the row. The head portions project from a face of the carrier a distance not substantially smaller than the width of the narrow carrier portion. Suitable means are provided for retaining the elements in the carrier openings.

The head and bight portions are located on opposite sides of the carrier.

Other features and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same 3,409,952 Patented Nov. 12, 1968 2 r j becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 shows a woven tape for use in theslide fastener chain of the invention'in plan view;

FIG. 2 illustrates the tape of FIG. 1 with attached fastener elements after a first stringer assembly'operation;

FIG. 3 shows a notching device performing'a last shaping operation on an otherwise fully assembled slide fastener chain of the invention, the view being in section perpendicularly to the direction of fastener elongation;

FIG. 4 shows the slide fastener chain of the invention in fragmentary plan view; V

FIG. '5 is a plan view of a machine for assembling the slide fastener chain of the invention; f

FIG. 6 illustrates a modified detail of the apparatus of FIG. 5 in side-elevational section on a larger scale;

FIG. 7 shows the incomplete stringer of FIG. 2 in transverse section;

FIG. 8 illustrates two partly manufactured stringers of the type shown in FIG. 7 pulled up in interlocking engagement of their elements;

FIG. 9 shows a slide fastener chain constituted by the stringers of FIG. 8 after an ironing operation, and prior to the shaping operation in the device of FIGS, in a view corresponding to that of FIG. 8; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a modified, partly manufactured slide fastener chain in a manufacturing stage corresponding to that of FIG. 9.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, and initially to FIG. 1, there is seen a woven, elongated slide fastener tape 1 having a regular basket weave, except for perforations 2 aligned in a row 3 and formed by the absence of warp yarns. Each perforations 2 thus is bounded by two normally spaced filling yarns and by two warp yarns whose transverse spacing is a multiple of the approximately uniform spacing of other warp yarns in the tape 1. The row 3 of perforations or openings 2 is arranged so as to divide the tape 1 into a narrow portion 4 and a wide portion 5.

The interlocking elements of the slide fastener of the invention are integrally joined. They are made of thermoplastic synthetic resin compositions, preferably nylon, which are first shaped into a wire of uniform cross section, wound into spirals or meanders, and given supplementary shaping treatments known in this art, and not in themselves relevant to this invention. FIG. 2 shows a preshaped spiral 6 of round nylon wire placed on the tape 1 in such a manner that the filling threads bounding the perforations or apertures 2 are received in the bight portions between the individual turns 20 of the spiral which constitute the fastener elements, as better seen in FIG. 7. The spiral turns have an oblong shape and a head 21 at one longitudinal end in a manner known to itself.

The apparatus for assembling two identical tapes 1, '1' with two identical pre-shaped nylon wire spirals 6, 7 into stringers, for assembling the two partly finished stringers into a chain, and for finishing the chain is illustrated in FIG. 5.

The two spirals 6, 7 are pre-sha-ped and interlocked in a known manner before being fed to the apparatus of FIG. 5 in the direction of the arrow 8 over a guide 9 which leads the spirals into the nip 12 of two circumferentially grooved feed pulleys 10, 11. The supply system for the spirals, not necessarily novel in itself, is represented only by the guide 9 but will be understood to include storage reels or their equivalent. The pulleys 10, 11 are rotated in opposite directions indicated by curved arrows by the non-illustrated drive motor of the apparatus.

The two spirals 6, 7 are separated on leaving the nip 12, and travel in approximately opposite directions toward respective guide pulleys 22, 23 over anvils 15 of respective presses 13, 14, the distance between each pulley 10, 11 and the associated anvil 15 being less than one half of the pulley circumference. Each press is equipped with a brush 16 whose bristles are approximately perpendicular to the face of the associated anvil 15, and which are reciprocated toward and away from the anvil by an eccentric 17 and a return spring 18;

The tapes 1, 1' are fed to the presses 13, 14 by a tape guide 19 in such a manner that the perforations 2 are aligned with the spirals 6, 7 while the tapes 1, 1 are interposed between the brushes 16 and the spirals. As the brushes 16 move toward the anvils 15, the bristles push the filling threads between the perforations 2 into the gaps between adjacent turns or elements 20; The heads 21 of the spirals 6, 7 face away from the'associated grooved pulleys 10, 11 and anvils 15 so that they slip than the'c'orresponding dimension of each wire'turn "or through the perforations 2 in the tapes 1, 1' in the presses 13, 14. The resiliency of the spirals 6, 7 and of the bristles on the brushes 16 is sufficient to permit operation of the presses 13, 14 during continuous rotation of the grooved pulleys 10, 11, and of the guide pulleys 22, 23, but indexing movement of the pulleys may be resorted to in an obvious manner, if necessary, or the brushes may move with the stringer while in engagement therewith.

The assembly of a tape 1 and an associated nylon spiral 7 which emerges from the press 14 and constitutes a 1 partly completed slide fastener stringer is shown in FIG. 7, and an analogous stringer assembly is discharged from the press 13. They are led from the respective guide pulleys 22, 23 into a pull-up device 24 in which their heads 21 are interlocked to form the partly completed chain seen in FIG. 8 whose tapes 1, 1' extend in spaced parallel planes.

The chain travels from the pull-up device 24 between the heated platens of an ironing apparatus 25 which set the two wide portions 5 of each tape 1, 1" in a first common plane while setting the narrow portions 4 in a second common plane so that each tape is J-shaped in cross section, as seen in FIG. 9, the temperature of the ironing device being sufficiently high to impart a reasonably permanent shape to the fabric of the tape which may be cotton or rayon, but not high enough to soften the nylon wire of the interlocked elements 20.

The ironed chain passes next through a notching device 26 consisting essentially of two driven wheels 27, 28 whose circumferences have V-shaped, sharp-edged grooves 32, as best seen in FIG. 3. The wheels 27, 28 are set in such a manner as to compress the elements 20 therebetween into their ultimate shape, and hot enough to soften the nylon and to form notches 29 in the elements. The material displaced from each notch forms a corresponding projecting burr 29a on each normally exposed face of the fastener element.

The fastener elements 20 are locked against withdrawal from the respective tapes 1, 1' by the notches 29 and the associated burrs. The gap between adjacent heads 21 of each stringer is closed by integral portions of the nylon wire in a direction away from the head. The tape thus cannot slip from the wire in that direction. Its movement in the opposite direction is limited by the notches 29 and the corresponding burrs which are arranged between the normal positions of the filling threads and the heads 21.

In the slide fastener chain of the invention shown in FIG. 9 prior to formation of the notches 29, and in FIG. 4 in the finished condition, the narrow tape portions 4 are bent away from the heads 21. The modified chain shown in FIG. 10 has narrow tape portions 4' which were bent into a common plane toward each other by the ironing apparatus 25, the shape of the emerging tape being determined mainly by the manner in which the tape is guided into the ironing device.

The width of each narrow tape portion 4, 4 is smaller fastener element 20 between the head 21 and the opposite bight portion of the turn. The last-mentioned bight portion thus is not covered by tape and can make direct contact with the side rails 40 of a slider 41 shown in phantom view in-FIG. 3 when the fastener-is being closed. The elements 20 of the two types of chain illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10 respectively are exposed or practically concealed by the tape portions 4'. They are otherwise identical, and are produced in an identical manner.

The finished fastener chain is discharged from the shaping or notching wheels 27, 28 by feed rollers 30. It will be appreciated that the shaping wheels may or may not be driven. The guide pulleys 22, 23 are preferably driven in proper synchronization with the grooved feed pulleys 10, 11. Resilient means other than the bristles of the brushes 16 may be provided for driving the filling threads of the tapes ,1, 1' into the gaps between the heads 21 of the fastener elements 20, and for thereby driving the heads 21 through the perforations 20f the tapes, and a detail of a modified apparatus otherwise identical with that shown in FIG. 5 is shown in FIG. 6.

The presses of the modified apparatus each have an anvil 34 faced by a row of nozzles 35, only one nozzle being shown in the drawing. The nozzles 35 are aligned opposite a groove 33 in the anvil 34 whose rounded bottom conforms to the afore-mentioned bight portions of the fastener elements 20. The tapes 1, 1' are guided over the spirals of fastener elements in the same manner as described above with reference to FIG. 5, and their filling threads 31 are driven into the gaps between the heads 21 of the individual fastener elements 20 by jets of fluid from the nozzles 35. Air may be discharged from such nozzles but the use of a liquid is specifically contemplated.

What is claimed is: v

1. In a slide fastener chain having two stringers, each stringer comprising:

(a) an elongated band-shaped carrier having two opposite faces and consisting essentially of two groups of longitudinal Warp threads and a plurality of transverse filling threads interengaging said warp threads,

(1) said warp threads being substantially uniforrnly spaced in each group,

(2) said groups being spaced from each other, the spacing of said groups being substantially greater than the spacing of the warp threads within each p,

(3) said filling threads being substantially uniformly spaced,

(4) said groups defining therebetween a row of openings separated from each other by respective portions of said filling threads,

(5) a portion of said carrier on one side of said row and including one of said groups being substantially narrower than the portion of said carrier on the other side of said row and including the other group;

(b) an elongated group of integrally connected slide fastener elements, i

(1) said elements essentially consisting of a continuous piece of plastic wire having alternatin head portions and bight portions,

(2) said head portions projecting in a row through respective openings of said carrier from one face thereof a distance not substantially smaller than the width of said narrower portion,

(3) said portions of said filling threads being received in said bight portions and remote fro said head portions, 2

the head portions of said stringers lockingly enga ing each other, and

(c) retaining means retaining said the projecting position thereof,

head portions, in

(1) said retaining means including an integral projection on each slide fastener element intermediate a bight portion and a head portion and ad- 452527 jacent said one face, 936,801 (2) said projections engaging said filling threads. 5 553,856 References Cited 940,066

UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS BERNARD A. GELAK, Primary Examiner. 

